"Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself. "-Henry Miller

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“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” - George Bernard Shaw

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The four houses (Tower Bridge, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Camper and bit sized) above are inspirations found on google images. The house below was created by my 11 year old daughter with just a tiny bit of help from me.

Monday, December 13, 2010

These are quite humorous! It is a project by JAJA Architects exhibiting at DAC that explores fourteen architectural based scenarios of how people and pixies aka 'Nisse' (Scandinavian elfs) co-exist. All in the form of snow globes. You can veiw all at http://www.ja-ja.dk/

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Slightly related..... My daughter and I went to see the quirky but sweet French musical collective Nouvell Vague www.nouvellesvagues.com a few weeks ago at the beautiful Royal Albert Hall www.royalalberthall.com Melanie Pain is the real star of this group!

I used Herta pastry crust for my pies this Thanksgiving. I stock up on Herta pastry every time I get to Paris. It is delicious, easy to use and very cheap(around a Euro) and is sold in everywhere even small groceries.

The cornmeal Madeline's I made, seemed to be a hit, the girls especially loved them. The recipe I found in an old edition of Victoria magazine 2002 which called for rosemary. I decided to make them the night before Thanksgiving since I don't have a very large oven but I had forgotten to buy rosemary. I took a chance and substituted Za'atar (an Israeli/Lebanese thyme & herb mixture with seseame seeds and spices). I think it worked better since rosemary can be quite over powering because it is tricky to mix evenly. Well here is the recipe if your interested.

5.Alternatively add the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the butter mixture, scraping the sides and bottom of thebowl occasionally.

6.Fill the Madeline molds halfway with the batter.

7.Bake for5 to 7 minutes or until golden.Let cool for 5 minutes and invert onto racks.Continue making Madeline's using up the batter.Makes 48

I also used quite a few recipes from one of my all time favourite cookbooks, Ottolenghi The Cookbook. Ottolenghi is a fabulous food emporium, specializing in a fusion of Israeli/Middle Eastern/ Western flavours.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Have a lovely long weekend all my American friends and family! We are having 11 friends coming round this evening after school and work. I do wish I could spend a Thanksgiving in the States one of these years.... :)